Sports media notes: 'The Rizzo Show' is ratings success

Despite being the new kid on the block in its time slot, WJW-TV 8's "The Rizzo Show" has vaulted to the top of the ratings.

Tony Rizzo's television show airs at 11 p.m. Sundays.

He said there's a caveat to his good fortune.

"When you're going on after Fox 8 news, it's a good lead-in," he said. "I don't want to take anything away from our staff. We started on Sept. 1. So far, so good."

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Rizzo was a sports anchor on Fox 8 for almost 14 years. He had been doing his popular radio show, "The Really Big Show," on an exclusive basis on weekday mornings on WKNR-AM 850.

He had been kicking around going back to Fox 8 in some capacity. When Northern Ohio Hyundai made a 52-week commitment to be the major sponsor for "The Rizzo Show," that opened the door for his return.

"They bought us sight unseen," Rizzo said. "One of their buyers was from Northeast Ohio. They are a great partner of ours."

Rizzo did a show before the Super Bowl on preparing his now-famous ribs. He said he got an overwhelming response.

"It was easily our most popular show," he said. "People were tweeting me pictures of their ribs."

He loves doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants on the show.

"They give me the freedom to do whatever I want," Rizzo said. "We found a real niche with the cooking segment. I've worked in restaurants my whole life with my uncle.

"This is as much fun as I've had in my career, and I've done baseball playoffs and NFL games at Fox."

He's proud that his show has topped the other weekend sports shows in the ratings game.

"It's beating all the other shows," Rizzo said. "They are more established and been on for years. It's the No. 1 sports show in the market."

He said he's taking "The Rizzo Show," along with his WKNR team, to Goodyear, Ariz., next week.

"We're going to spring training," he said. "We'll be in Goodyear on Tuesday to shoot a bunch of Indians stuff.

"We're killing two birds with one stone. We're doing our radio show there (at WKNR) Wednesday, Thursday and Friday."

Rizzo said he's very encouraged by the Tribe's offseason acquisitions.

Quick shots

-- Chris Fedor, formerly at WKNR-AM 850, has been hired by the CBS station WKRK-FM 92.3 (The Fan) on a part-time basis.

-- Andy Roth, program director of The Fan, is excited to land the NCAA tournament on their FM station. "We're proud to be the new home of the NCAA tournament," he said. "We know that Cleveland sports fans follow the college basketball scene leading up to March Madness and will make sure to air the biggest games leading up to the 'Big Dance.' Everyone pays attention to the NCAA tournament and we are looking forward to have new people sample our station from now until the finals on Monday, April 8."

-- Congratulations to Kate Zelasko (formerly Buddenhagen), the PR director at Fox Sports Ohio. She is due to give birth on March 6. She'll be on maternity leave for 12 weeks.